


If your car breaks down a lot, you should just date your trustworthy mechanic

by miyu_skye



Category: Gintama
Genre: Angst, F/M, I'm Bad At Tagging, Movie Reference, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, References to Other Works, but only when kamui calls it upon himself, in a sorachi fashion obv
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-27
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2019-01-06 06:58:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12206178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miyu_skye/pseuds/miyu_skye
Summary: Working at an intergalactic security company was the job of your dreams, even if sometimes you had to make under the table dealings selling weapons to the Harusame. After all, you had the opportunity to experience the lastest Amanto technologies and applying them to your own creations. Everything was going pretty well until an incident prompted you to meet the Harusame's 7th squad Captain with whom you developed a strange kind of friendship. Multiple POVs. Graphic depiction of violence warning because it's Kamui we're talking about.





	1. Rescue mission.

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my native language, so you're more than welcome to point out my mistakes in the comments section. I'd love to improve my writing, since I have the feeling that I'm not able to deliver every detail of the scenes in the most efficient way.  
> Let me tell you about this story of mine. The reader is actually a full-fledged OC in my mind but, from my personal experience, I saw that it's better when the OC is just the reader. I also found it easy to write in 2nd person, it was a blessing for this reader insert fanfiction. In my story I try to avoid putting the [Y/N] part which I personally find kind of annoying, finding different ways to make the characters refer to my reader. I don't provide a physical description of this reader, for the reasons stated above, but I'm providing her with a backstory, or, at least, some inclinations.  
> The first chapter is a bit slow and there aren't many interactions, but I needed to set up the reader, the context and the situation. The second chapter is already written, by the way, and I will post it on the first days of October, for several reasons (one of them being the celebration of the airing of the Gintama anime!).  
> Also, I am very thankful to Sorachi for giving Kamui a more solid backstory: this way it's easier for me to see him as a character who can have a healthy romance.  
> This is the first time I try to write a kind of complex situation in one of my stories, so feel free to ask me questions about the sub-plot and/or let me know if I wasn't clear on some parts of the story! 
> 
> Thank you and I hope you will like this story, I am putting my whole soul (not my balls, since I am a girl) into it!

“Come again?”

The tall man who was likely in the latest part of his thirties gave his speaker a suspicious look. Even though you weren’t personally under his stare, you felt the sudden urge to jump back to your spaceship, run far away from that place and leave the others with the nice and warm company of those space pirates.  
  
To tell the truth, it wasn’t even the space pirates part the issue that was bothering you. You had a job in a famous intergalactic security company which provided operative systems – and of course defensive protocols – to the ever growing number of spaceships that travelled across the universe. Being one of the leaders in its sector, the company also had shady business going under the table, providing overpowered weapons in the form of robots to everyone who asked for one. And, of course, the main clients of this kind of business were obviously the Harusame. When you applied for the job you were more than prepared for this kind of dealings, since your obsession with technology and your overwhelming passion for robots and all the likes went beyond the legality and the ultimate end of their usage.  
  
What you weren’t prepared for was trying to trick a group of said pirates – which wasn’t famous for its kindness or misery especially towards traitors – in order to make some girls escape from its spaceship which was travelling to the infamous Yoshiwara in the glorious city of Edo.

“So? The Elders didn’t tell us about this ‘security check’ that was supposedly scheduled for today.” The man with the pale yellowish hair insisted, stressing the words he felt the most suspicious about.  
   
“The other day we noticed a bug in the system and we didn’t have the time to go and let the Elders know, so we’re just visiting our clients who are using this type of system and fix it ourselves. We’re sorry for barging in like this, Abuto-san.” Your boss replied back trying to sound as convincing as possible and not at all on the verge of having a panic attack.  
The man called Abuto raised an eyebrow and shrugged, seemingly buying the lie.  
  
“Well, it’s not that we don’t want to let you in here, but today we’re making a very important delivery to Earth and we can’t have outsiders merge in. If we mess up, Lord Hosen is going to complain and I don’t really want to piss him off, I’m sure you can understand.”  
  
“If we can just have a word with your Commander—“  
  
“Trust me, you don’t want to. I’m nice enough to let you talk, but our Commander is very stupid and he would have already ripped you in half if he was in a bad mood.”

At those words the poor man took a step back, clearly scared at the threat threw at him. One could say that he had a strong will though, because he nonetheless kept on trying to persuade that Abuto man to let him and his team in the spaceship.

You had to give him credit for his stubbornness, but maybe what was driving him was something that you just weren’t able to grasp because you had never been in that kind of situation. A few days earlier word reached your team that a galactic cruise was attacked by some space thugs and a group of earth girls – and there was your boss’ sister among them – disappeared from the ship. The most likely scenario was that they were captured by the thugs who attacked the cruise and then they were sold to the most obvious buyer: the Harusame. After a bit of research those suspicions were confirmed and it became obvious that the end of those girls’ trip was obviously going to be in Yoshiwara, the Earth Paradise for men and Hell for women, where they were to be escorted by the Harusame’s 7th squad. The plan that followed those revelations was to pretend that your company – namely, your team – had to check the operative system of the 7th squad’s spaceship urgently and using this occasion to make the girls slip away from there.

You weren’t really knowledgeable about what was going on inside the Harusame’s headquarters – the only contact with them had only been when your team had to sell a weapon to the Elders – but you did know something about the 7th squad. Its members were feared by a lot of creatures in the universe, since they belonged to a very violent and powerful alien race, which, in your own language, only meant to stay as far away from them as possible. The other – less obvious – downside to this suicide mission was the fact that you were using your company’s position, which was supposed to be as neutral as possible since they provided security systems for both the space travelers and the ones who attacked them, to clearly take sides.

One the other hand, though, you knew that even if you refused to join the plan you wouldn’t get away so easily. If your team was captured – more like killed – by the Harusame’s 7th squad you – as the sole survivor – would still have to shoulder all the blame and you’d still be executed one way or another.

After a bit of chatting, Abuto and your boss seemed to have reached a conclusion and your team was allowed to ‘fix the bug’ as long as it didn’t take too long and you let go a sigh of relief you didn’t know you were holding in when some footsteps from the hallway were heard.

From the tales you heard about the Harusame’s 7th squad you really didn’t know what to expect from their Commander: their race was told to be the most ferocious bunch in the universe, always thirsty for blood: some of the guys you encountered in that same ship kind of fitted the image you had in mind, with big scars on their faces and intimidating looks. The man named Abuto, who apparently was the Vice Commander, looked like he didn’t really like to fight, though, so maybe it was the one who ruled the team who had the most fearsome appearance of them all.

“Ah, you wanted to have a chat with the Commander? Here he comes. Though I suggest you let me do the talk. As I said before, he has a very short tempe—“

Abuto wasn’t able to finish his sentence because a table came crashing over him and shut him down.

“Abuto, you know that I don’t like when you badmouth me in front of strangers and I’m not there to hear you. By the way, the sooner we make the delivery, the sooner I can eat a lot of earth food at the expenses of that perverted old man, so let’s hurry.”

With a groan, you saw the Vice Commander stand his ground again after being owned by that table and after that, you weren’t able to follow the rest of the conversation because you were a bit shocked. The ‘Commander’ of that fearsome group of slayers was a guy slightly taller than you, who looked like your age and was admittedly kind of hot, even when throwing a table to one of his comrades. Trying to forget your last thought, you wondered how a guy as young as him was able to lead people who were clearly older than him.

Suddenly, you felt a hand on your shoulder. One of your teammates was urging you to follow them to the control room and you assumed that Abuto was able to convince the Commander to let you do your ‘job’.

There was one of the company’s ships waiting outside the one you were in – protected by an invisible barrier and undetected by the 7th squad’s radars because it was easy to hack your own security system – and it was ready to depart when all the girls to rescue were safely aboard it. Said ship was to go to the intergalactic bus station and have them dispatch into the depths of the universe, never to be found again.

If your team was able to accomplish that, taming the Harusame with a nice discount on your newest weapons was all it would take to sweep the whole incident under the rug. But that was the biggest if, you caught yourself thinking while boarding the ship that would take you to your supposed safety.


	2. Trading

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where our Reader tries to save herself from very angry space pirates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so happy to publish this chapter. I am putting a lot of work and ideas into this story and I really want to share it with the Gintama fandom. Thanks to the ones who commented, who left kudos, who bookmarked my story and also to all the people reading it. You make me so happy!  
> In this second chapter we see the first proper meeting of Reader-chan and Kamui.

After a trip that seemed to last forever, you and your team were able to secure the girls to safety. In order to assess the current situation you went back to your laboratory, which was the main base of operation when you were building the weapons sold to the Harusame. Your boss then contacted one of the Elders and explained the situation.

“Looks like we made it. The Elders weren’t happy at all after we used our neutral position to our own advantage, but it looks like they need our weapons more than we originally thought. Thus, we will have to work a bit harder these months since they requested very complicated machinery in order to ‘forget’ this little incident, but for now, we’re pretty safe—”

With a timing that was almost comical if it wasn’t for the desperate situation, just after your boss finished reassuring your team that everything was settled, you heard a loud bang and, after looking at the screen connected to the camera at the entrance, you saw the smiling face of the (hot) Commander of the 7th squad. Even though your eyes – and admittedly other parts of your body, but that wasn’t the issue – were especially pleased after he flashed that smile at you – at the camera, actually – you heard him talk to someone off-screen.

“Hey Abuto, they’re watching us through that thing, right? You think they can see me?”

“I don’t think now it’s the right time to worry about that. You’ll see them with your eyes when we’ll reach the main room.”

“Well, I thought it was cool to announce my entrance, since they’re about to die.” He then turned again to the camera. “There was one time I tried to reach the place Abuto was by punching the screen we were using to talk, but I won’t need that now, since we’re almost there. You better be ready, thieves!”

“There’s no need to make them know how weird your antics are!” Abuto’s complain was far away from the camera but you were still able to hear him. After you had the time to ask yourself how someone could teleport through a screen – and your mind, in response, was trying to think of methods to make teleportation real – you decided to focus on the main point of the day: making it out alive.

“The robots… we can use them to defend ourselves for the moment, and when the pirates are busy fighting we can try to escape!”

“For now, we can just raise the particle barrier around this room so we can be safe for a while here!”

In the meantime, your colleagues were thinking about a plan, but to command the robots someone had to be in the control room – that someone would actually be you, since you were the one who built the weapons and thus knew better how to use them –, which was where you were at that moment and where your enemy was headed.

The plan was good in theory: it was true that the machines you developed for your company were pretty powerful and could go against quite strong enemies but the enemies were now Yato fighters, which were on an entirely new level of strength compared to the enemies you trained your robots for.

Surprisingly, your weapons, while not posing a dangerous threat to the Harusame’s squad, held them busy for a while and almost everyone escaped safely. You were almost ready to leave the room through the emergency exit when you heard a loud noise at the main door that, when you turned to look at it, you saw crumbling in pieces.

You then heard the cheerful voice of the Commander.

“We’re hereeee, space robot-fighter— Hey, Abuto. What’s this? It’s like a wall.”

It looked like the Commander was stopped by the particle barrier and you let escape a sigh of relief.

“Why am I always the one explaining things? I would’ve never thought I’d see one of these in real life, actually. Hey” He looked inside the room and locked his eyes on your figure watching them from the control panel. “It’s too tiring explaining things to this idiot. Can you do it for me?”

You blinked at his question but didn’t dare to answer. It’s not like you didn’t want to, you could make a ten hours presentation on how the particle barrier worked without resting once, but at that moment you were just a bit scared for your life.

The man named Abuto groaned and turned his gaze at the younger man. “Well, as you said, it’s just a wall. I don’t know exactly how it works, but I’m sure there was something similar in that series I was watching the other day. And we were also fighting against robots not too long ago. It’s a pity they weren’t shaped like lions.*”

“I liked them the way they were, if it’s shaped like a lion it takes away all the fun. Plus I’m more of a fan of that other series with the giant robot… the one that inspired that kickass movie we watched together two weeks ago. **”

Since the conversation was growing more and more absurd – even though you understood the two references they made – you tried to reach the emergency exit.

“Hey, are you trying to escape with your friends? We’ll just chase your group again, you know?”

The Commander’s words made you stop in your tracks.

“And even if this barrier works now, if we destroy everything around it we’re bound to find also the device that controls it, so you’re pretty much trapped, young lady.” The older guy added.

It looked like you didn’t have another choice. You didn’t want the base – and your life – destroyed, so you gathered what little courage you had in you and tried to speak.

“I-If you want the girls… even our group don’t know where t-they are right now. We p-parted with them… at the intergalactic station and… all of them took s-separate routes.” You tried to steady your voice but to no avail.

The Commander made a mumbling sound.

“To tell you the truth, it’s not like we were particularly interested in them. It’s for the better if less people witness what has become of that perverted old geezer. But…”

His smile got wider and you were scared beyond imagination, but some crazy part of yourself couldn’t help but noticing how amazing he looked when he was smiling.

“I was indeed interested at the feast of food he was going to give me as a prize. That’s why we can’t let this thing you did slide. Even if you managed to make the Elders forgive you.” He finished, giving you a bored look.

“Uh… we have only canned food here, I’m afraid… but… The… weapons… we can… uh… can I trade them… for my life?”

“Do you have better food somewhere else?” The eyes of the Commander lighted up.

Abuto then sighed and interrupted him. “No, that’s not the question we wanted to ask. Are you talking about the robots? They’re just a pile of iron right now.”

“But… I can easily repair them. And… since I’ve also recorded some of your fighting moves I can make them even stronger than now.”

At those words the Commander tried again to take a step forward but was stopped by the barrier. You widened your eyes and took a step back at his actions.

“Hey, can you really make those stronger? Can you?” He looked pretty excited for someone who wanted to kill you minutes ago. “I mean, they weren’t even a challenge right now but you sounded pretty sure of yourself before.”

You took the opportunity as soon as it was given to you. Maybe the next version of your robot would just piss him off more and he would kill you right there, but for now you could just made it out alive.

“Y-Yes! I can do it! P-Please, look forward to this!”

Abuto sighed loudly, looking at his Commander and then at you.

“Looks like our stupid Commander managed to make a deal with someone without spreading his brain on the wall. This is a day to remember!”

 

 

*: Abuto is, of course, referencing Voltron – Defender of the Universe, where we have giant robots shaped like lions fighting for the peace in the universe. I am a huge fan of the remake Dreamworks made, which is aired by Netflix (and the 4th season goes online in a few days!).

**: Kamui is talking about the series Jeeg Robot (and the movie he’s talking about is a masterpiece made by a very talented Italian director – the title is “They called him Jeeg Robot”). I always loved how Sorachi made references to everything that he liked, and I wanted to do the same just once in this fanfiction dedicated to his work. I’m not as good as him and I’ll never be, but it was funny adding those two mecha references (since my Reader-chan is an expert in that field) to my story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the next chapter we see the two of them interacting a bit more. I liked a lot how it came out, so I am really excited to publish it. Please, look forward to it and I hope you will continue to read my story!


	3. Fixing.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where Reader gets to know better the strange Commander of the 7th Harusame's squad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I'm at my third chapter, I can't believe it! Thank you all for your support through kudos, comments, or just a reading of this story. I honestly had no inspiration on how to continue the plot for a bit but it somehow came back, lol. Anyway, this is the third chapter, one of the most important in my story, I think. I could have written it better but, all in all, I'm kind of satisfied with the result. I hope you are too. My target was to try and create a somehow unspoken/between-the-lines chemistry between the two of them. Before the final Gintoki vs Kamui fight it would have been kinda impossible, but the chapter about Kagura's family's past were a total enlightment, so thanks to Sorachi. I hope you will like this chapter too, and, as usual, comments, doubts about unclear parts of the story or just advices are more than welcome!

You honestly didn’t know what to think of the situation you found yourself in. You imagined the hot (but kind of scary) Commander growing tired of your robots after the first two or three times and either killing you – which was a rather inconvenient outcome – or simply not visiting your laboratory anymore – which, for some reason, still made you kind of upset. Actually, the latter resolution was also what your colleagues hoped, because every time the Commander barged into your office you could clearly feel the atmosphere tense up. Well, to tell the truth, you were pretty scared too, especially the first time.

Kamui – you heard his Vice Commander call him with that name from time to time – didn’t say much; he just asked you where the robots were and promptly went to that room. Abuto was there too and he just sat on one of the free chairs in the office and mumbled something you weren’t able to hear, but it was clear as day that the whole situation was quite boring for him. After what it seemed like half an hour the younger man came back, your robots completely destroyed. Then his deep blue eyes stared intensely into yours and, after saying something along the lines of ‘so you really made them stronger’, he left your lab with his companion without saying anything more.

The following visits went exactly like the first and you just deduced that he was satisfied with the improvements you made to his ‘enemies’. After some time, you didn’t mind him visiting at all, mostly because, thanks to him, you were able to make your robots improve at an alarming speed.

At his tenth visit he just came alone, justifying the absence of Abuto saying that his Vice Commander didn’t want to babysit him anymore. The fact that Abuto wasn’t there made you a little worried – you suspected that he was accompanying Kamui because if he destroyed your lab, which was an important asset and source of weapons to the Harusame, the duty of sweet-talking the Elders into forgiving his squad would have fallen to him – but, on the other hand, that meant that the Commander really just wanted to spar with your robots and not kill everyone in the office – even though you were the only one in the room to welcome him after the first visits, since the others were magically super busy every time the two pirates came to visit. After hearing the last of your weapons collapse to the ground under the hot (and not so scary anymore) Commander’s hits, you went inside the room along with your tools in order to bring your metallic friends back to life. While checking the last data your robot was able to record, you heard some footsteps behind you.

“How about making this room like the Hyperbolic Time Chamber*? That would be super awesome!”

You didn’t realize Kamui was still there, thus making a little jump to your left in surprise, disconnecting your computer from the core of the robot and overcharging its main circuit in the process. That caused an electric shock from its system and a groan of defeat from your lungs. Because of that mistake you had to rebuild the main circuit from square one, meaning you were going to stay up late for many nights.  
  
“So? Can you do it?”

Kamui, unaffected by the incident – probably not even realizing what was happening –, pressed you again with his question.

“Uh…” you tried to form a sentence while still thinking about the damage you provoked earlier “N-No, it’s not possibile. I can repair these robots because I change the parts that are not working anymore but I can’t control time.”

His mouth formed a small pout at your words of response and your mind thought he was really cute – wait, what were you thinking?

He then eyed what remained of the core of the robot.

“I think I broke it way worse than you did” you commented bitterly.

“Oh? Is that so?”

“Yes, what you usually damage is the external part, which, when stops working also shuts down the whole system. It’s a preventive measure to protect the main system, which is what really makes the weapon go. The main system is also what I update every time you visit in order to make it last more against your hits. And that’s what I broke earlier, haha.” you ended your explanation with a small – but still bitter – giggle, then immediately realized you started rambling about technology and stuff to a complete stranger who was now watching you with a somehow surprised face.

“I didn’t really follow everything you said, but since I’m a bit competitive I can’t accept that you broke it worse than I did.”

“You surprised me before and that’s what made me broke it, so it’s still your fault.”

At those words, he made a pensive face and mumbled something, before leaning against the nearby wall and looking around him.

You took that as a signal that the conversation was over and resumed your work. You couldn’t help but watch him out of the corner of your eye, but he didn’t do much. For a while he just watched you do your work; after that, he looked around the room, then he took strolls around the room, examining what remained of the robots he destroyed.

“Well, Abuto must be waiting for me. See you.” And with those words he left.

  
His next visits followed this new scheme of events, with Kamui keeping you company while you worked on the out-of-order piles of iron. After a while, you were pretty much used to his presence and you started asking him for tools and instruments without thinking. He would give them to you right away if they were in his field of view or ask where they were if he couldn’t see them or didn’t know what they were. Sometimes you would even dare to ask what he did the days before or talk about your work and sometime he would do the same. You weren’t really one for small talk, but it somehow felt kind of relaxing talking about meaningless topics with him. On certain days he’d ask you a specific question about your weapons or your company and you just talked and talked before realizing that you probably lost him at your second sentence. When you were alone – or, sometimes, when you mind wanted to play games with you, even when he was around – you wondered why he remained or what everything that was happening meant, but, for your own sake, you preferred not to look for the answer.

 

One day, you were waiting for him as usual and, instead of him breaking through the door, you heard him calling you from the intercom. After opening the door for him, you held back a gasp. His face and his arms were pretty much covered in blood, but he looked like he didn’t care.

“Don’t worry. Not all of this is mine.” He said casually, probably referring to all the blood covering him, maybe after seeing your shocked expression.

You weren’t sure what to do, so you just asked the most stupid question. “Are you okay? Should I take you to the intergalactic hospital**?”

“No, I’m fine. You’re amazing at fixing things, so I thought I’d come to you for a little fixing for  myself.”

You wanted to reply that you were good at fixing machines, not people – also, he wasn’t even human – but you still decided to clean him up from the blood first before proceeding to wrap his injuries.

“Woah, I’m not really sure how living things work, but those looks pretty serious. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, my race has a quicker recovery rate than earthlings. Sometimes you need to fight living things from which you can draw blood, you know? That’s the only things your weapons are lacking.”

Actually, you liked robots because they can be fixed even when ‘killed’, unlike humans, but you were talking to someone who belonged to one of the most bloodthirsty races among the whole universe so maybe your standards weren’t the same.

“Well, I make weapons so creatures from weaker races can stand a chance against the stronger ones.”  
  
“I can’t really relate, I’m not interested in the weak. But if they can grow stronger thanks to you, that’s another story.” He then looked at you. “But I keep winning against your robots, so you’re still far away from your goal.”  
  
“I’ll have to try harder then” you replied with a small smile.  
  
  
Notes:

*: Today’s reference is offered by Dragon Ball! It’s one of Sorachi’s favorite source of inspiration for references, so I thought I’d use it too.

**: Another Voltron reference. Please, bear with me, I love that series.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will be written with a different POV and person, since it's centered around Kamui. See you next time and thank you for reading my story!


	4. Visits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where Kamui thinks about past events with the robot girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry I'm late. I had my graduation on December and, right after that, I had to study for the admission test of a post-graduate course I wanted to attend since my second year of college. Luckly, everything went well and now I have some time to think about my story. To tell you the truth, chapter 4 and 5 were written a long time ago - somewhere between November and December - but I couldn't decide how to publish them. Also, everytime I read them I wasn't really satisfied. In the end, I decided to publish the chapters in the order I had originally thought. I still have the feeling that I am making things go too fast between them, but some points of my story require this kind of pace, so bear with me and I'm sorry if I'm making Kamui too OOC. 
> 
> This chapter is different from the others because we see things from Kamui's POV. Next chapter will be written in 2nd person again since I switch the focus back to Reader-chan.
> 
> As usual, thank you for your comments, kudos and just for reading my story. I am happy to know that this story is liked and, if you have questions, advices, everything, don't hesitate to ask. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well!

Kamui couldn’t wait to find the man who looked like the leader of that strange group who visited their ship not too long earlier. Said group made a fool out of his squad by stealing those girls that were destined to Yoshiwara and the 7th squad’s Commander was very eager to smash his head against the nearest wall. To tell the truth, a small part of him would have been kind of pleased even if they got away with it, meaning that less girls were there to ‘admire’ how low the former Commander of his squad had fallen; stll, the fact that those people dared to trick him and his squad still kind of pissed him off. He was sure they had some pretty solid reasons to try and steal from the most dangerous pirates in the Harusame force; probably among those girls destined to Yoshiwara there was someone connected to one of them – he recalled their leader to be from Earth and… maybe there was also an Earth girl among them? He wasn’t paying a lot of attention.  
Anyway, whatever the reason, he was pretty annoyed at the attitude they dared to show.

That’s why, after barging into what looked like their main base of operation – and after defeating some of the robots those people sent after his squad, which were pretty cool weapons for his tastes because they looked like the ones from the sci-fi movies he and Abuto sometimes watched – he was pretty surprised to see that the room was empty, with the exception of one scared girl. Was she the one controlling those machines? He thought it was the leader who had complete control over his weapons.  
  
While attempting to enter the room in order to ask said girl for her leader’s whereabouts, he stumbled upon yet another surprise. The place was protected by a barrier that prevented him from going inside the room. Not that it would have mattered, since the one he wanted to kill wasn’t there. Also, the only person inside the room was a woman and he had that somewhat personal policy not to kill women unless absolutely necessary, since they were able to give birth to potential strong children.  
  
“Hey, are you trying to escape with your friends? We’ll just chase your group again, you know?”  
  
He just said those words to make that girl deliver a warning to her group but she – and Abuto too – took it as a sign to start contracting things. Somehow it turned out that she was some kind of mechaninc since she built both the weapons and the barrier protecting the room. Her skills with words must have been as good as Abuto’s, since she was able to make him interested in her weapons without a lot of effort.  
  
  
Kamui wasn’t one to deny his thoughts or emotions, so he had no problems showing his excitement upon finding out that that girl’s weapons were indeed growing stronger every time they visited. Well, it wasn’t as exciting as that feeling of pure bliss he felt when slaughtering some living and breathing creature who thought it was a good idea to go against him; those robots could never replace those emotions. Still, they were kind of amusing in their own way.  
  
The girl who diligently repaired them was as weird as her machines. It wasn’t like Kamui knew a lot about Earth girls – the only ones he met being that perverted old man’s prostitutes – but they usually made a very disgusted face at his antics, despite being somehow interested in him at the beginning. On the other hand, the robot girl – he had no idea how what her name was– was initially kind of scared and tried to stay as far away from him as possible, but, as time passed, she seemed to grow used to him and ended up not minding his presence at all. That transformation was a source of great amusement from Kamui’s part because he always liked how great earthlings were at adapting themselves to new situations. He also took the time to notice that the robot girl didn’t paint her face  like the other Earth girls he knew and that she wasn’t even able to sit properly*, but Abuto explained that those etiquettes were required only to the girls who lived in Yoshiwara.  
  
Kamui decided to talk to her because he honestly thought that she could build a device able to control time – too bad she said she couldn’t, it would have been awesome – and after that, he just asked her whatever popped into his mind. It was kind of relaxing because she answered his questions clearly – sometimes her language would get a little too hard to follow but whatever – and calmly. Talking to her was the same as talking to Abuto, with the advantage that her face was more aesthetically pleasing than the one of his Vice Commander.  
  
  
From time to time she would smile either at something Kamui said or at something she said herself. When Kamui heard her giggles he was a bit confused, because most of the times she wasn’t saying funny things but he felt the urge to giggle along with her. Also, there was the fact that hearing her laugh was kind of nice. He didn’t gave those feelings a lot of thought though, he was always surrounded by a majority of men, and the few Yato women in his squad were insanely strong and didn’t giggle much, so that whole experience was kind of refreshing. The only thing he didn’t really like was the insane amount of questions Abuto asked him every time he returned back to their ship from his visits to the mechanic girl. Kamui just couldn’t understand why his Vice Commander was so interested in his combats against the robots.  
  
  
During one of the fights he preferred to face by himself – everyone needs some alone time every now and then and he was no exception – he miscalculated the risk and ended up getting more beaten up than expected. His mind was already imagining Abuto scolding him, saying that he should have been more careful, since their race was on the verge of extinction, that he should give his safety a little more concern and all that stuff, when he had a brilliant idea. The robot girl was very skilled at fixing those machines, so maybe she was able to fix people too. And she surely wouldn’t give him lectures like Abuto would.  
  
After seeing her shocked expression Kamui remembered that she had never seen him in his true combat mode, which made him wonder about her following reactions. He expected her to scream or to – at least – make the very same scared face she had the first time they met. However, the girl’s responses were surprisingly normal, as she proceeded to clean him from his enemies’ blood and to bandage his injuries, much to Kamui’s surprise. While she was tending his arm, he found himself thinking that her touch felt softer than Abuto’s – he didn’t know why he was making that comparison, though –, it was almost as she was _afraid_ to hurt him. This, of course, wasn’t something she needed not to be worried about since he was one of the strongest men in the universe. During the whole bandaging process, he just stared at her; she was asking him some questions, mostly about the circumstances of his injuries, but he was answering absent-mindedly. He never got to be _this_ close to her and, after he stopped looking at the bandage she was trying to make – she wasn’t really good at it, the thing was unnecessary large and it squeezed his wrists too much –, he took his time looking at her face up close, starting from the shape of her eyes and lingering his gaze a bit too much on her lips. He was still analyzing the robot girl up close when her face moved up and he found her eyes staring into his. She kept looking at him with an expression he couldn’t really figure out – no one else ever looked at him that way. After a minute she seemed to realize that they were just staring at each other without talking and broke their eye contact awkwardly.  
“Uh… I-I’m done. I’m sorry it’s a bit messy but I’m not good at fixing people.” She said without looking him in the eyes again. He wanted to ask her why, but something inside him decided against it and, after mumbling something along the lines of ‘thank you’, he left her office.  
  


‘Looks like our mechanic lady isn’t very good at tending people’ was Abuto’s comment when he went back to the ship, which kind of annoyed Kamui for some reasons.  
“How do you know it was her?”  
“Maybe I have the gift of clairvoyance” replied the older man with an amused grin.  
The next thing Abuto knew was that he was thrown through three of the spaceship’s doors by a quite powerful kick from his Commander.  


Kamui was still remembering his Vice Commander’s words when he was strolling through the intergalactic mall with the mechanic girl. One day, when she was repairing the robots, she told him that she needed some unique pieces to improve her robots even more: since Kamui was kind of curious about how those things worked, he thought it would be a good idea to go with her. He didn’t have much work to do that day anyway. He was careful not to let Abuto know where he was going, though. He knew the older man was hinting at some kind of romance going on between him and the robot girl, but, in all honesty, he couldn’t be more far away from the truth. He was always surrounded by beautiful Earth women thanks to his visits to the old perverted geezer and that girl wasn’t as beautiful as them. Actually, – after many visits Kamui had the time to notice – she didn’t lack in beauty, but since she didn’t paint her face or wear fancy clothes like the Earth ladies he knew, she didn’t stand out as much as them. He already told his former master many times that he wasn’t really interested in alcohol and women and, if he had to choose between the two, he’d totally go for a drink with his pirate squad instead of having women try to pleasure him for money.  
  
While he was lost in those thoughts – he didn’t know why he was comparing her to the other girls he knew – she handed him a piece of iron that was supposedly useful to her weapons. He could clearly see the change in her attitude towards him: at first, she was scared like the others, but maybe she deemed him not dangerous after his first visits and now he could feel that she was at ease around him. It’s not like he didn’t mind: she was providing him with enemies that were ‘immortal’, somehow funny to fight with and even Abuto was kind of satisfied with the whole situation. But, what was that uneasiness he was feeling in his chest?

 

  
Notes:  
  
*: This is not a reference like usual, it’s more like a headcanon. I think that Kamui knows a lot about manners and all the like because, even if he’s not interested, he is a very good observer, thus he learned a lot from his visits to Hosen. Moreover, I think Abuto is the master of trivia, so those two things combined have made Kamui super knowledgeable about etiquette and Earth costumes (at least the ones followed by the Yoshiwara girls).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Abuto knows what's up)  
> Anyway, the last part of this chapter is not a event that happened in the past; it's a preview for chapter 5 (which was written immediately after chapter 4). Stay tuned for the next update! :)


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